Smile
by Remus J. Lupin-Black
Summary: Sirius decided one early morning in October that he was going to make Remus smile.


**Title**: Smile  
**Author**: Remus J. Lupin-Black  
**Rating**: G  
**Era**: Marauder  
**Genre**: General  
**Pairing(s)**: Pre-Remus/Sirius  
**Summary**: Sirius decided one early morning in October that he was going to make Remus smile.  
**Disclaimer**: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
**Author's Note**: A single line from a new manga that I just bought and read and loved inspired this little ficlet.  
-  
When Sirius Black was eleven he went to Hogwarts and became classmates with James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin. James was loud and obnoxious and Sirius, from a dignified pureblood family, found his attitude contagious. Peter was just a tagalong at first, but his small size allowed him to sneak into even the most cramped of spaces and he quickly became a part of the group. The last person in their dorm, Remus, was quiet, aloof, and hard to approach. He was all ways buried in a book or taking notes or staring out a window and, Sirius noticed, he all ways looked very sad. And he all ways looked very sick, even though he said it was his mother that was sick.

That's why, Sirius decided one early morning in October that he was going to make Remus smile.

-

"I want you all to pair off," Madam Hooch said briskly, her sharp eyes flicking between the first years as they held their brooms awkwardly before them. "One of you will get on their broom and you will hover in place while your partner spots you."

"Sirius, you'll go with me," James said with a wide smile.

"No, help Peter. You said you've all ready been on a broom and he's scared of heights. I'll find someone else," James' face fell as Sirius left him to the somewhat overweight and frightened looking Peter while he approached Remus who was standing by himself looking as if someone had just killed his mother.

"Want to be my partner?" Sirius asked boldly, gray eyes flashing as Remus looked at him in surprise.

"Um…okay," he said quietly.

So Sirius and Remus worked together that lesson and though Sirius fell off his broom and into the mud, Remus just shook his head as he picked himself back up and so, Sirius decided that he would keep trying.

-

Sirius spent the next two weeks with Remus, following him into the library when he went to study. Every day he would talk animatedly about whatever came to mind, but Remus still hadn't smiled. As the days passed, Sirius was growing frustrated. Perhaps something was wrong with Remus, after all of the other students were all ways smiling and laughing. Why not him?

By the time November rolled around, Remus was looking even worse than usual and when he disappeared on the second and didn't show up for dinner, Sirius spent most of it staring at his plate.

"You're spending too much time with that Lupin kid," James said, sitting down next to him. "He's too quiet. It's not normal. You ought to help me and Pete. We're going to make the Slytherin's red tomorrow."

"Yeah all right," Sirius said.

-

The next day, Remus wasn't in class and though Sirius was worried, he stilled helped James and Peter hexed the Slytherin's red and as they left Professor McGonagall's office, James made the announcement that he and Sirius were best friends. Sirius stared at him.

"Best friends?" he asked.

"Yeah, like regular friends, only better. You know. Best," James explained with a grin.

Sirius thought this over. James Potter was wild and unpredictable, something that Sirius, growing up in the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, was hardly used to seeing. So he decided that he didn't mind being best friends with James Potter.

"All right," he said, grinning back at James.

He didn't notice the jealous look that Peter gave them both.

-

Remus didn't show up until lunch and Sirius, laughing and dodging the bits of clam chowder that James was flicking across the table at him, quickly got up and walked over to the end of the Gryffindor table, sitting down backwards on the bench.

"Were you sick?" he asked.

Remus' face, all ready sheet white, seemed to pale even further and he nearly choked on his pumpkin juice. Setting the goblet down, he shook his head.

"No. My mother. She's sick. I had to go visit her," Sirius nodded, watching as Remus picked at his food. A few moments later, James, realizing that he didn't want to be alone with Peter, came over and joined them. Peter, as usual followed.

-

But the time Christmas rolled around, Sirius had yet to make Remus smile. He had managed to serve several detentions and loose almost seventy house points pulling pranks along with James and Peter. Sirius went home for Christmas and while his mother lectured him for cursing (something he had picked up from James), it had been a good holiday. He had taught his little brother, Regulus how to play Exploding Snap.

-

It was a few days into January when it happened. The day was crisp and cool, the grounds covered in a thick blanket of snow. Just as the sun was about to set, Sirius dodged into the library. He and James (and Peter) had just set off at least twenty dungbombs in Filch's office and they had decided to split up when Filch came after them. Panting, Sirius collapsed onto the window box that Remus had tucked himself into behind the stacks of books.

"What'd you do this time?" Remus asked with a small frown.

"Nothing!" Sirius said loudly, a few books from nearby flew of the shelves and pelted him over the head. "I don't like this part of library," he said grudgingly as he rubbed his skull.

Remus shook his head.

"You ought to know better than to raise your voice by now. You follow me in here enough," Remus said simply.

Sirius frowned.

"I do not follow you. That would…be undignified," he said, irritated.

"You follow me about as if you were a dog," Remus said, looking up from his book. "It's rather irritating."

"You think I'm irritating?" Sirius asked, feeling a bit hurt, though he didn't show it.

"No, it's a good kind of irritating," Remus explained, looking confused. "You're like…a dog, but a dog that's impossible to dislike even though you're a hindrance."

Sirius grinned.

"You're really strange, you know that?" he asked. He heard the library door opened and he leaned over to see who had come in. "Damn!"

"What?"

"Filch," Sirius leapt to his feet, looking down the racks. Remus' eye widened in surprise and then narrowed.

"I thought you said you didn't do anything," he said lowly.

"Well, I lied," Sirius hissed. "Come on!"

Grabbing Remus' hand, Sirius pulled him to his feet, giving him just enough time to grab his Defense Against the Dark Arts book before pulling him further into the stacks and away from Filch as he stalked toward the window box they had just been sitting in.

Though he knew he was only going to get in trouble should they be caught, Remus allowed Sirius to pull him through a twisted path through the library stacks and out the doors.

"Come back here!" Filch screeched and the two boys took off running down the halls, taking turns and staircases in the fleet hope of avoiding the caretaker. They stumbled to a halt somewhere on the seventh floor.

"How?" Remus gasped as they saw Filch appear suddenly at the end of a hallway, sending them running back the other way.

"Don't care," Sirius said as they dodged past a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. "In here!"

Tugging open the door, Sirius pulled Remus into the small broom closet with him and slammed the door shut, enveloping them into darkness. They heard Filch run past the door as they stood next to each other, hands still clasped together, their breath loud in the darkness. After a moment, Sirius realized that he was still holding the other boy's hand and released him so that he could press his ear to the door.

"You're insane. You're all insane," Remus gasped. Sirius shushed him as he listened for footsteps. Several minutes passed and finally he nodded in satisfaction.

"Come on you," he opened the door and walked out into the hallway, Remus close behind him.

"Why'd you bring me with you?" Remus asked quietly.

Sirius shrugged.

"Seemed the right thing to do. You'd have gotten in trouble too if you'd stayed. Filch can smell even the faintest of dungbombs on a person. He'd have smelt it on you from sitting so close to me," Sirius answered.

"You don't smell like dungbombs. You smell like dust," Remus said. Sirius stared at him for a moment.

"How do you know?"

"I…" Remus flushed with embarrassment.

"Oh never mind. We had fun didn't we?" he asked, grinning. Remus stopped stammering and looked at him for a long moment before he finally nodded. "I say we do it again."

"Why?" Remus asked. "Why do you want to do anything with me? James and Peter told you I'm boring. I am."

"Yeah well, not all of my friends have to be fun," Sirius said with a scowl.

"I'm your friend?"

"Of course you are," Sirius said derisively. "I wouldn't talk to you if you weren't."

Sirius would never forget that moment, standing in the seventh floor corridor, standing outside what would later be known to them as the Room of Requirement, still breathing a bit heavily from their dash from the library and both of them smelling of dust. Remus was small and pale, the full moon only a few days away (though the Sirius then wouldn't have known that) and Sirius was all smiles and bright gray eyes.

Remus smiled, the corners of his mouth curling just enough to make it so and his eyes, an odd amber color that would fascinate Sirius for years to come, seemed to light up; almost as if by magic. Sirius decided right then and there that despite how long it had taken, getting Remus to smile had been worth it.

-  
**Author's Note**: Gawd, that was just…I don't think I write eleven-year-olds very well. It's been too long since I was eleven.


End file.
